IBIS 2007 Highlights - Collision Repair Magazine

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Volume 6

Issue 1

IBIS 2007 Highlights

Written by CRM News

Monday, 30 July 2007

It was lights, camera and action in Cannes – not for the film festival but for the 320 delegates who attended the sixth International Bodyshop Industry Symposium (IBIS), held for the first time at the Hotel Martinez on the French Riviera. This year’s theme was ‘Wheels of Change: Re-thinking the Repair Market.’

Tony Aquila, founder and Chairman of Solera, began the proceedings with his keynote address on the industry today and its fear of change. He said he lived in a constant state of dissatisfaction and warned against complacency in the market. He added that industry players could “…either be part of change or victims of it, because it won’t stop.”

Other speakers shared this sentiment. Frank Parisi, Director of European Automotive Research, JD Power & Associates, said one in five customers consider switching insurers after experiencing the claims process and that higher satisfaction ratings resulted from direct involvement in the decision making process.

Paul Cooper, Director of the Institute of Customer Service, added that everybody owned the customer and that it was essential to keep hold of existing ones. He said, “The biggest mistake was to make the same mistake twice.”

John Kiff, Senior Advisor at ICDP, went further by claiming that nobody owned the customer and what mattered was who services the customer.

All agreed that any attempt to improve service provision should focus on the whole process and not one single aspect. This was borne out in Autadex’s Global Vice President John Schwinn’s presentation when he revealed that labour rates had little or no bearing on overall repair costs.

“Focus on the whole process and avoid win-lose initiatives such as a reduction of labour rates,” he said. Jim Burrell, Senior Vice-President of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, agreed and said it was far better to focus on the human element rather than try and micromanage everything.

With the theme of ‘Wheels of Change’, this year’s Report contains complete transcripts of all speaker presentations at the six sessions making up IBIS 2007, together with a detailed précis of each of the Q & A discussions and consolidated statistical market data for most of the key refinish markets around the world.

Collision repair markets around the world are facing unprecedented changes. IBIS 2007 reflects the myriad elements impacting on all sides of the industry today and looks for resolutions.

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